Local News
Jewish Federation presents discussion of antisemitism in Canada
By BERNIE BELLAN On Wednesday, October 14, the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg presented a conversation between Rabbi Matthew Leibl and CIJA (Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs) CEO Shimon Koffler Fogel titled: “Antisemitism in Canada: Pushing back against hate”.
In introducting Fogel, Leibl made the following observation about his not having been exposed to antisemitism during the six years he spent as a radio show host prior to his becoming a rabbi at the Shaarey Zedek: “In the six years I spent on the air I never experienced anything like it (antisemitism).”
That observation served as a prelude to Leibl’s asking Fogel, “How familiar do you think people are with antisemitism?”
Fogel responded: “I am increasingly uncomfortable with the term ‘antisemitism’. Our concern is hatred directed toward the Jews…There has been a steady increase in unabashed hatred toward Jews…The overwhelming majority of antisemitic animus toward Jews is rooted in ignorance…Anything born out of ignorance can be healed with education, but what we really have to be concerned about is the 20 percent of antisemitism that comes out of real hatred toward Jews, not ignorance.”
Leibl asked: “How do we balance the distinction between antisemitism and antiZionism?”
Fogel: “I reject the understanding that ‘everything has changed as a result of the conflict between Israel and Gaza’ ”(last May, which led to a marked upsurge in antisemitic behaviour, especially on the internet).
“What has been happening is an effort to redefine how we think about society.”
Fogel went on to explain that Israel makes for an easy target, especially for those on the left. He referred to Naomi Klein (“Progressive” hero who has often criticized Israel) as having remarked, in explaining why so many on the left attack Israel when there are so many other countries that have far worse records when it comes to human rights: “Israel is the low hanging fruit.”
Fogel added that “Israel is the proxy for the Jewish people. To treat differently the aspirations of the Jewish people is antisemitic.”
He referred to instances this past May in Montreal when Hamas supporters would drive through Jewish neighbourhoods of Montreal in their cars, shouting “Hitler didn’t finish the job” or “We’re coming to get you.”
There is “an artificial distinction between the Jewish people and the Jewish state,” Fogel suggested.
Leibl asked: “Are there tools we can use when tension is raised?”
Fogel: “We have to separate things into two categories: What we used to do – which was target certain political groups in an effort to win support for Israel and what we need to do more of, which is recognize that we actually have a second target group within our own constituency” (members of the Jewish community who are quite critical of Israel).
Turning to the subject of social media, Fogel had this to say: “There is a sense of inadequacy how to answer (antisemitic posts) on social media.” Again, he pointed to divisions within the Jewish community itself, saying “We’ve become fractured, we’ve become polarized. A community that isn’t unified has lost its effectiveness.”
Still, Fogel wanted to emphasize that it is “unity – not uniformity” that the Jewish community has lost. “We’ve lost the principle of consensus,” he observed.
Yet, in responding to antisemitic social media, Fogel noted the challenges that pertain to how small the Jewish community is worldwide, in comparison with the Muslim community, for instance (although he was also quick to note that by no means are all Muslims antisemitic).
“We have to develop a greater facility to respond to social media,” Fogel said, including doing the following:
We have to “educate” – something that is a result of “an ignorant multi-generational deficit”.
We have to draw a “distinction between activism and advocacy”. In doing that, we must enter into an “exercise of valuing the principles of inclusion and mutual self-respect.”
Leibl followed up Fogel’s suggestion, asking “So, who’s the ‘we’ who does that?”
Fogel suggested that “Federations are the key hubs – maybe not the main points of contact for Jews, but the best places to provide resources” for combating antisemitism.
Yet, as much as antisemitism is certainly a problem in Canada, Fogel conceded that “the vast majority of social media posts originate outside of Canada” – which makes it very hard to counter, even if there were some government regulation of social media in this country
“We’ve called on the federal government to introduce an online anti-hate strategy,” Fogel said, but Canada alone isn’t going to be able to do it.”
“We’re going to have to generate a global consensus so that posts generated in Iran and which are seen in the U.K. (for example)” can be regulated in the U.K.
When it comes to hatred toward Jews on social media, moreover, Fogel pointed out that “both extremes (left and right) are toxic to the Jewish community. Unless there’s a coercive element imposed upon them,” he added, “they’re not going to change.”
However, there’s another element to trying to control social media, Fogel said, which is “that in order to have an impact we actually have to surrender control” – not to governments, but to “influencers”.
In this new world of social media it is the importance of “influencers” we have to acknowledge, Fogel argued: people who don’t “create” content on social media, “they report” what others have produced.
“We have to reach out to the real influencers,” Fogel suggested. He pointed to the influence someone like Lebron James has – with his “37 million followers on Twitter”.
For someone like Lebron James (and if you’re reading this and don’t have a clue who Lebron James is, he’s an American basketball player), “the most important influence Lebron James is going to have isn’t what he tweets, it’s what he retweets,” according to Fogel.
“The best way to get control is to give up control” to young influencers.
Interesting proposition, I suppose. But how the heck are you going to be able to persuade young influencers to take on antisemitism online? Is Kylie Jenner interested in anything more than her latest brand of eye shadow, I wonder? Now, if Bar Rafaeli or Gal Gadot were to join forces with the Kardashians, maybe that would work. Now there’s an idea!
Local News
Diane Levit’s photos showcase every day scenes from all over the world
By MYRON LOVE For several years, my wife, younger daughter and I made it a point to spend one weekend over the summer at the Lakeview Resort Gimli and Conference Centre. Naturally, we couldn’t help but admire the framed photographs lining the hallways – photos that can easily be mistaken for paintings – with their vivid Mediterranean scenes of brightly coloured doorways, stairs and white walls glimmering in the bright sunshine.
A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to meet Diane Levit, the artist behind those scenes and a multitude more. Levit is quite likely a unique photo-artist – a talent that has been drawing appreciative art collectors now for over 35 years.
As is pointed out in her Distinctive Images brochure, she is “able to transform the apparently simple images she is exploring through the lens of her camera into artistic compositions, creating a painterly effect.”
“What I have attempted to do in my art is blur the distinction between photography and painting,” she explains. “I look to photograph the colourful, the rustic, the old. I try to capture scenes from cultures that are slowly disappearing. In that way, I am helping to record history.”And it is not only the Mediterranean lands of Italy and Greece where she has travelled to capture everyday life on film. Over the years, one might think that she been almost everywhere. She has photographed huge icebergs in Greenland and Emperor Penguins in Antarctica, wild Camargue horses in southern France and jaguars in Brazil, polar bear cubs in Wapusk National Park and farmers working their rice paddies in Vietnam. She has, she reports, been to Morocco five times and to Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania a couple of times.
“Over the years, I have been fortunate to have been able to visit over 60 countries and every continent,” she says.
Now, Diane comes by her artistic instincts naturally. The eldest child of the late Jack and Yetta Levit notes that both her father and her zaida, William Levit, were artistically inclined.
“My zaida (who came here in 1921) was an artist,” she points out. “He painted colourful scenes in Ukraine.”
In Winnipeg, Levit became a sign painter and eventually started his own business – Levit Sign Company. “My father joined the company in 1947,” she recounts. “They were the source of my artistic inspiration. They painted numerous signs that you can still see on the walls of many buildings downtown. They climbed the sides of multi-storied buildings together using only ladders . Zaida would sketch the outlines and dad would fill them in. “
“My father later began manufacturing neon and plastic signs and billboards.”
In 1963, she continues, her father sold the business and became a property developer – eventually creating Lakeview Development Inc.
Diane grew up in West Kildonan and Garden City. She attended Peretz Folk School, Garden City Collegiate and later the Banff School of Fine Arts. Eventually she acquired degrees in social work at the University of Manitoba and University of Toronto.
During the 1980s, she worked in her father’s businesses, but her real passions were travel and art. “Although I studied drawing and painting in Banff,” she recalls, “I found my focus in photography and – in the words of Cartier Bresson, capturing the decisive moment.”
Levit’s passion for travel was planted at a young age. She recalls as a teen and young adult being inspired by photography while on her frequent family vacations.
When she turned 30, she took stock of her life. “All of my contemporaries were getting married and starting families,” she recalls. I wasn’t ready for that yet.”
She decided to set off with her camera to visit Communist bloc countries and then Israel. It was an exciting time to be in Israel in 1982. She spent six months traveling the country developing her photographic skills.
This was at the height of the campaign to free Soviet Jewry. While in Israel, she volunteered to work as a photographer for the World Zionist Organization – which also involved taking pictures at the World Congress on Soviet Jewry in March 1983. Among the photos she took were shots of then Prime Minister Menahem Begin and Avital Scharansky, who was leading a worldwide campaign to free her husband, Natan Scharansky, from the Soviet gulag.
This was also at the height of the initiative to bring the Ethiopian Jewish community home to Israel. She was directly involved in recording this historical event.
Diane’s photos soon began to appear in the hallways at Lakeview hotels, leading guests to begin asking about buying them. In 1992, shortly after marrying airline pilot Raymond Hall and giving birth to their son, Darren, Levit founded Distinctive Images and became a fulltime photo-artist.
Over the past 30 years, she has traveled extensively – sometimes with her husband, sometimes with her son, and sometimes with a photo group – exploring the canvas that is the wider world.
She makes her art available through her website – www.Distinctive- Images.com – and through exhibitions in Canada and the United States. Her favourite art shows are the Art Expo at Assiniboia Downs and the One of a Kind Show in Toronto, Canada’s largest art fair with over 850 artisans and exhibitors.
Currently, she is one of the local artists featured in the annual Hart Trail studio tour.
And, she is still going strong as she looks forward to her next trip – in February – back to Africa.
Local News
Winnipeg Playwright Gilles Messier Brings Atomic Age Tragedy to the Fringe
By MARTIN ZEILIG Winnipeg playwright Gilles Messier is turning his lifelong fascination with the Manhattan Project into a new stage production for next summer’s Fringe Festival.
His latest work focuses on Louis Slotin, the Winnipeg-born physicist whose fatal accident at Los Alamos in 1946 made him both a cautionary tale and a reluctant hero of the atomic age. Slotin was conducting a criticality experiment with the notorious plutonium “demon core” when his screwdriver slipped, unleashing a burst of radiation.
The core itself was a 6-kilogram plutonium sphere intended for an atomic bomb of the same type as the Trinity “Gadget” detonated at Alamogordo on July 16, 1945 and “Fat Man” detonated over Nagasaki on August 9. It only became known as the “demon core” after Slotin’s death, because it had already killed physicist Harry Daghlian under similar circumstances eight months earlier.
Slotin absorbed a lethal dose while shielding his colleagues from the worst of the blast. In Winnipeg and beyond, he was celebrated for his sacrifice. Among fellow scientists, however, he was remembered as a brilliant but sometimes audacious experimenter. Messier says it is precisely this contradiction—heroism at home, recklessness among peers —that drew him to Slotin’s story.
“That tension between brilliance and recklessness is what inspired me to write this play,” Messier explained in an email interview.
Told Through Alvin Graves
The play unfolds through the eyes of Alvin Graves, the physicist Slotin was training at the time of the accident. Graves received the second-highest dose of radiation and survived, though his life was forever altered.
The frame story is set in a Los Alamos hospital, where Slotin lies dying and Graves recovers from his injuries. Slotin’s parents, Israel and Sonia, arrive from Winnipeg to be at their son’s bedside and press Graves for answers. Through flashbacks, audiences see two versions of Slotin: the dutiful son his parents knew and the risk-taking scientist his colleagues remembered.
Messier says he became increasingly intrigued by Graves during his research. Despite experiencing radiation sickness firsthand, Graves later denied the long-term effects suffered by survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He went on to direct the Nevada Test Site, assuring the public that nuclear testing posed no danger.
“Graves is a fascinatingly contradictory figure,” Messier noted. “In some ways, even more than Slotin.”
Support and Sponsorship
Producing a Fringe play is never simple, and Messier’s latest project presents unique challenges. Period costumes, authentic props, and the recreation of Slotin’s fatal experiment all add to the expense. If the production does not win the venue lottery, it will need to “Bring Your Own Venue,” further increasing costs.
Messier is seeking sponsorship from the general community and, in particular, the Jewish community. Financial support would help cover costumes, props, and venue rental. He also welcomes offers of rehearsal space, auditions from community members, and consultation on cultural or historical aspects of the show. Sponsoring organizations will be promoted in programs and posters.
Cast and Characters
The play features a cast of eight:
· Louis Slotin
· Alvin Graves (portrayed by two actors, one in the hospital frame story and another in flashbacks)
· Harry Daghlian, another physicist killed by the same plutonium core
· Israel and Sonia Slotin
· A Nurse and a Doctor
Several roles double as prominent physicists, including Leo Szilard, Enrico Fermi, and Otto Frisch.
Writing and Refinement
Messier drafted the script in about three weeks, a pace he describes as typical for his Fringe productions. But the work continues to evolve.
“I don’t consider a play truly finished until opening night,” he said.
His last show, If Day, saw half its jokes devised by the cast during rehearsals.
Looking Ahead
For now, the play is slated for next summer’s Winnipeg Fringe Festival. But Messier is open to other opportunities.
“If venues or companies elsewhere are interested in hosting performances—or even taking over production entirely—I’m willing to explore those possibilities,” he said.
Authenticity remains central to his vision. Messier is already building period-accurate props, including replicas of the critical mass experiments that killed Slotin and Daghlian, as well as a full-size replica of the Trinity “Gadget,” the world’s first atomic bomb.
About Gilles Messier
Messier brings both technical expertise and creative experience to the project. A graduate of Carleton University with a degree in aerospace engineering, he worked as a tool design engineer before turning to writing and research. He is chief writer for the Today I Found Out YouTube channel and the sole writer, presenter, and editor for Our Own Devices. He also leads the Miami Bunker Project in Manitoba.
His previous Fringe productions include The First Pillar (2017), The Sport of the Engineer (2018), The Mercury 13 (2019), Murmurs of Earth (2022), Countdown to Babylon (2023), Nuclear Family (2024), and If Day (2025). He is also the author of Calling All Stations (2020).
Messier’s upcoming play promises to shine a spotlight on one ofWinnipeg’s most unlikely connections to the atomic age. By exploring the contradictions of Louis Slotin and Alvin Graves, the production asks audiences to grapple with the paradoxes of science, responsibility, and memory.
As Messier put it: “Slotin’s story is not simply about one man’s fatal mistake. It’s about the contradictions at the heart of the atomic age—brilliance and recklessness, courage and denial, heroism and tragedy.”
To contact Gilles Messier for sponsorship, etc.: maxqproductionswpg@gmail.com
Gilles Messier
Sidebar: A Story Worth Supporting
As someone long fascinated by the life of Louis Slotin, I feel compelled to add a personal note.
My first feature story about Slotin, “Dr. Louis Slotin and ‘The Invisible Killer’” (The Beaver, Volume 75, Number 4, August–September 1995), gave me an early opportunity to explore his remarkable and tragic life.
A few years later, in 1998, I worked as a researcher, writer, and associate producer on the documentary Tickling the Dragon’s Tail: The Story of Louis Slotin, directed by Tom Radford and co-produced by Great North Productions of Edmonton and CanWest Global. The film was broadcast in April 1999.
These projects, along with earlier works such as Dexter Masters’ The Accident (1955) and the fictionalized Slotin character portrayed in the film Fat Man and Little Boy (1989), deepened my appreciation for Slotin’s complex legacy and the importance of sharing his story.
Building on that experience, I believe Gilles Messier’s new play, Fission, deserves strong community support. He revisits Slotin’s life in a novel and compelling way, using theatre to explore the contradictions of brilliance and audacity, heroism and tragedy.
This is not only an important Winnipeg story, but one that resonates far beyond the city. Among fellow scientists, Slotin was remembered as brilliant yet audacious—qualities that tragically led to his death.
Messier’s production would be a perfect undertaking for institutions such as the Winnipeg Jewish Theatre, which could provide a platform for a work both historically significant and artistically ambitious. His play offers audiences a chance to reflect on the human side of the atomic age.
It is not just theatre—it is a vital act of remembrance.
Local News
Jewish Federation Annual General Meeting Dec. 17: almost $7 million raised for Combined Jewish Appeal
By BERNIE BELLAN The Jewish Federation held its Annual General Meeting in the multipurpose room of the Asper Campus Tuesday evening, December 17. During the meeting it was announced that the 2025 Combined Jewish Appeal had raised a record amount: $6,969,878, which was $200,000 more than had been the target amount, and which was also $370,000 more than the previous year’s total.
Other highlights of the evening included saying farewell to Paula Parks as Federation Board Chair following completion of her two-year term – which began shortly after the October 7, 2023 Hamas massacre. Paula’s successor as Board Chair is Carrie Shenkarow.
Prior to conducting Federation business, however, Paula Parks introduced a special guest, Kelly Hiebert, a history teacher at Westwood Collegiate, who undertook a role in 2024 to design a new Holocaust curriculum that is now in use in schools throughout the province, in Grades 6, 9, and 11.
Hiebert, who was profiled several times in the pages of The Jewish Post & News, and is a past recipient of the Governor General’s history award for excellence in teaching and the Manitoba excellence in education award (in 2021); was named a recipient of the Prime Minister’s award for teaching excellence in 2023.
Hiebert explained to the audience how he came to develop the new Holocaust curriculum. During the course of his 25-minute talk he showed a series of slides outlining the course content.
A summary of the new curriculum on the internet says this about the new curriculum: Manitoba’s Holocaust Education resources, available through the, include a new, mandatory curriculum for Grades 6, 9, and 11 launched in late 2025, developed with the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada, offers lesson plans, primary sources, and historical context on antisemitism, human rights, and Canadian responses to the Holocaust. Key resources feature survivor testimony, maps, timelines, and analysis tools, aiming to teach critical thinking and combat hatred.
The full curriculum guide can be read on the Manitoba Education website (edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/diversity/multic/holocaust.html)
Following Hiebert’s presentation, Board Treasurer Aron Grusko presented highlights from the Federation’s 2024-25 financial report (with a year end of August 31, 2025). Grusko said that the Federation’s “balance sheet is healthy.”
In addition to the Combined Jewish Appeal having raised a record amount, Grusko also noted that the Federation had shown a $32,000 surplus of revenue over expenditures which, combined with a $117,000 gain on investments, led to a $149,000 surplus in total.
As a result, the Federation was able to increase its allocations to its beneficiary agencies from $2,856,400 in 2024 to $2,968,607 in 2025.
As far as emergency relief for Israel goes, while there was still over $121,000 collected for that purpose in the 2024-2025 fiscal year, it should be noted that the amount raised for emergency relief for Israel in 2023-24 was an astounding $4,421, 468.
You can read the entire financial report by going to 2024-25 annual report.
In his remarks Federation President and CEO Jeff Lieberman (who also assumed his role in 2023, noted that the Combined Jewish Appeal is now in its 87th year.
Lieberman told the audience that across Canada a total of $175 million has been raised for Israel since the October 7 massacre.
He also pointed out that this year marked the 25th anniversary of the Grow Winnipeg campaign, which was intended to bring newcomers to Winnipeg’s Jewish community. Over 6800 newcomers have arrived here since 2000, Lieberman said.
In thanking Paula Parks for her services as Board Chair, Lieberman said that “Paula has been a true partner…She has been strategic and thoughtful…Our community has been so fortunate for your leadership. Thank you for everything you’ve done for our community.”
Lieberman went on to introduce Carrie Shenkarow who, most recently, has served as Chair of the Federation’s Public Relations task force.